Common Questions
For Mental Health
What is mental health?
Mental Health includes emotional, psychological, and social well-being of children. It affects how children think, feel, and act. It also helps determine how children handle stress, relate to their peers, and make choices. Mental health is important at every stage of life. Mental health looks at possible social, emotional, and behavioral concerns and it is important to overall health.Why would a preschool age child need Mental Health services?
Concerns with social emotional learning such as difficulty managing behaviors, stress, emotions, or difficulty problem solving. In addition, latest research in child development has found that even very young children can be seriously affected by early life traumas, such as loss of a parent, divorce, domestic violence, drug and alcohol abuse in the family or frequent change in living situations. Young children can react to such trauma with various emotional distress and challenging behaviors. Without early identification and intervention, mental health issues may possibly interfere with healthy development.
How do I know if my child needs Mental Health services or help?
There are some behavioral indicators that can help determine if a child may be experiencing emotional difficulties: repeated tantrums or consistently behaves in a defiant or aggressive way; seems sad or unhappy, or cries a lot; withdrawal; change in eating habits; bed wetting and regression to earlier behaviors that they’ve outgrown, decline in school performance, poor academic growth despite strong efforts.
What kind of Mental Health Services do you offer for children and families?
The Mental Health Department is staffed by a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, School Psychologist, and a graduate school Mental Health Intern. All offer consultations to families, make observations in child’s classrooms, conduct home visits, and meet with teachers and parents. In addition, staff is readily available to support parents during stressful situations, or any need or questions they may have in relation to mental health.
How can I start the process to get Mental Health services for my child or/and my family?
Contact your child’s teacher or family services advocate for a referral with Mental Health services. You can also contact the Mental Health staff directly via our Contact Us tab. And keep up to date on our webpage on parent webinars/ trainings available for FREE, and other parent resources.